I have come to the conclusion that I am definitely not a sewist. I might be a good quilter but I am sadly lacking some of the skills for straight sewing.
I followed two patterns (by Beverly Guhl and Terry Burns) that can be found in the Bernina FB group. I used the two as I also needed a slot for my side thread spool which one of the patterns had, so I just combined them. I made my panels, quilted them in a grid...time consuming but no problem!
Then came the zipper which had to run over the front of the machine and down the side in a curve. Beverly Guhl also suggested that it could run down the middle but I did not want my zipper to go over the front screen (at that stage I was still unsure how the sizing would work out for the cover). I bought some zippers and gave it a go. Total fail as I did cut into the zipper on the curve and it became an almighty mess of unravelling zipper. Then I discovered that the size for the zipper in one pattern was wrong...I needed a smaller one. So off I went again and bought two more zippers. While there I also bought some bias tape and fabric glue, but more on that later.
I managed to put the zipper in
After that I needed to sew the individual panels together. Had not thought about this before, but they all needed to be sewn to the top and then at a 90 degree angle to the side. Now, this pattern uses double batting which I did use and the bulk became rather challenging in terms of bending it around and the bigger the cover got, the harder it became to maneuver this through the sewing machine. My little sewing station is set up for piecing blocks and lightweight quilt tops, not this monster of a contraption. This took several days. After that I attached the binding to the bottom. God knows why, but I thought I might try to sew the binding to the back and then stitch in the ditch catching the back. Never tried this so this was a good opportunity, so I thought. I glued the binding to the back with my new fabric glue...fabulous! Then I stitched in the ditch with Invisafil thread and hit the back seam sometimes but not all the time, so in the end I had to go around and stitch it all by hand anyway. Did not take the ditch stitching out but just went over it again by hand. This binding is never coming off.
Then came the open slot for the threadmast. Had never done binding to an inner angle before and spent hours googling this. Tried to use the bias tape I bought. Again, total fail on the corners. I followed a very intricate method where you have to be very precise in the corner with measuring your 1/4in seam precisely and hitting the right spot as you turn. At the thickness of the batting and the unruliness of the cover that just did not work at all. In the end, I used 'normal' binding and followed a method where you snip into the corner, then pull the 90 degree angle into a straight line and hope for the best. That worked mostly in terms of the mitering. Not that pretty, but it is a corner.
So here is the finished cover
All in all, not a bad effort.
Karin
I think it turned out fantastic, Karin! Especially as you were venturing into murky unknown sewing waters far beyond the comfort of your wheelhouse... :-). I really need to make a cover for my Q24 now that I'm not using it on a daily basis, but I'm dragging my feet because I (foolishly!) spent SO much time on the cover I made for my main sewing machine, and I've only actually had the cover ON that machine for a few days out of the last decade! I think you're right, that bag making materials and techniques would probably be hugely helpful for the type of cover you made. I do know from my very limited garment sewing that definitely, cutting a zipper to the exact size you need is a very common thing, but you do it before inserting the zipper and you zigzag back and forth across the teeth at the bottom of the zipper to make a new zipper stop since you've cut the metal or plastic one off. You could still do that if you wanted to but, like I said, your cover looks great and is totally functional so there's no reason to clip off the extra zipper tail if it's not bothering you. As for the inside binding corners, I'd have done that exactly as you did, snipping into the corner so you can pull it straight/flat for stitching. And the one thing that made it a little easier for me was that I used my serger to go around all of the pieces of my machine cover after I cut them out of my quilted fabric, and that really helped to flatten and eliminate bulk from all of my seam allowances and made it easier to work with. But I wasted a silly amount of time on that cover that I never use, with an embroidered monogram embellished with hand stitched beads and a vintage frog closure... Well, I'm using that cover now on my B700E embroidery only machine since it's the same shape and size as the machine I intended the cover for! Congrats on struggling through despite the challenges; your finished cover is terrific!
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